Episode 1 - Introduction
"Welcome to the Cathedral of Shadows, where demons gather..." -'Mido' Overview The inaugural episode of Cathedral of Shadows, in which Rasen and Katsu introduce themselves and set the tone for future episodes. Length: 48:17 Hosts: Rasen and Katsu Timeline Breakdown 0:00-2:45 Rasen, creator of the SMT Beginner's Guide and Katsu, admin of Mayonaka Forums, lay out the basics of their new podcast. 2:56-10:54 The dynamic duo informs us how they got into the series and a few of their favorites. Katsu began with Persona 3: FES, since he was too young to get his mom to agree to buy Nocturne. Rasen explains he saw Devil Survivor in Nintendo Power, and played until the Wendigo, turning him off from the game in its entirety. He didn't get addicted until P3 came out on the Playstation Network. 10:55-14:32 Rasen talks about his favorite game, at the prompting of Katsu. His is Devil Survivor 2, which he likes because it's got mechanics from Persona and a dark atmosphere. Katsu's are the DDS games, since he loves the cast outside of their cannibalism, and he also loves the Press Turn system. 14:33-28:52 The first ever news section, in which they discuss the newest release, Shin Megami Tensei IV. Rasen is nearly done with the neutral path at the time of recording, and the pair agrees that the overworld could have been better. They discuss its response by critics and some of the things it was dinged for, like the lack of later Persona game mechanics or the less bombastic characterizations of the cast. They also talk about the tendency for the new games to be judged against the Persona series rather than the other entries in the numbered SMT series. The ins and outs of the idiosyncracies of the game come under scrutiny. Spoilers abound. 28:53-30:44 The conversation transitions to the abundant DLC for the game, and the dark shadow they feel it casts over any future releases. Katsu wouldn't have bought it if it were just costume DLC, but Rasen takes comfort in the fact that at the very least, it was more story instead of anything too obnoxious. 30:45-38:03 Katsu leaps the chance to discuss SMTxFE, and leave Atlus' financial troubles for a later video. SMTxFE is, in Katsu's words, the most mysterious of their new announcements. Rasen thinks it looks promising, and is hopeful since both series are difficult RPGs, and has high standards. The ramifications of Hama, Mudo and permadeath are gleefully pointed out. Katsu expands on some Fire Emblem: Awakening mechanics that may make an appearance. Rasen immediately recognizes it as RNG BS, Katsu agrees. Rasen's tried to play "the one with Roy" and couldn't get into it. They also address the eShop deal, which Rasen took advantage of. 38:04-41:12 Break Record's then-upcoming release takes center stage. Rasen is conductor of the hype train. Ghostlight's pre-order shenanigans are panned by the pair, where the company demanded a set number of pre-orders, 1,800, in order to be released in Europe. The catch-22 of the situation, where fans rightfully called a re-release, leading to a shortage of vanilla DS2 buyers, and thus people unwilling to pre-order in Europe, is pointed out. Rasen takes issue with the DS2 difficulty spike. The pair agrees that Devil Survivor: Overclocked was good, though the dub could have been better. Rasen advertises his channel on his channel. 41:13-44:40 They move on to Persona Studio, which had become an official team of Atlus dedicated to making Persona games, with major Persona 4 developments promised to be on the way. Persona 5's domain had been registered, Persona's 3DS title is brought up. They speculate on what it could possible be, ruling out P5 completely. Rasen thinks Katsu's hypothetical P1-with-P3-battle-system sounds fun. Rasen discusses other handheld vaporware. 44:41-47:04 Persona 3: Spring of Birth and Persona 4's slot machine are discussed in other developments. Rasen says the Persona diehards will shell out to get their slot machine with Rise on them. Katsu doesn't like how shady their business practices are and lambasts Index for it. Rasen says it was Index's record keeping that got them in trouble. The Index Illuminati decides which SMT games get made. 47:05 Katsu signs them off. Comment, subscribe, reply, send them a question at cathedralofshadows@gmail.com and tell them how you want to be identified. Rasen asks for feedback.